Canon PowerShot S60

Opinion: Although I am still learning to use it, I am very impressed of the flexibility and features of this camera and yet it's not complicated to use.
The main reason I bought this camera is it's wide angle zoom, so convinient to shot landscapes and people (so they fit in the frame). Also it is so flexible that I will have to learn more photography to make use of it.
On the design, in my opinion this camera would be better if it had some way to protect the camera in case of fall (rubberized edges). Also the battery and memory cap is just in the corner, so it may break easily if hit.
Another improvement would be to have an external flash socket. To ad a filter you have to attach an adapter wich may be cumbersome, so filter while editing (except for polarizing filter). In conclusion, I am happy with it.

Opinion: An unbelievable amount of features in such a small package. Well built, and great picture quality. It may take a good week or so to learn every feature within the camera, and even then, you might forget that you have them at your disposal.

I first jumped into the digital market back in 2000 with a skimpy 1.3 mp Olympus. Up until now it has been my "who cares about the quality, I just want this shot" point and shoot. For my quality shots, I rely on my Canon A-1. I finally got to the point where the 1.3 just could not do anything I wanted to do with it, so my choice was to just return to shooting all film, or upgrade. Now I am a college student (actually just graduated), so I couldnt afford this camera on my own. Luckily graduation has its perks. So, I have had about a week to play with this camera, and I am loving every minute of it. I took it out last night for some time exposures and was really happy with the performance.
My favorite features include the adjustable flash intensity, the 28mm lens, auto-bracketing, adjustable flash curtain, and construction overall.
I would highly recommend this camera to anyone who can afford it. It is definately the best quality and best bang for the buck in the compact 5mp market.

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Opinion: I've sent it back. It's worse than the S50 I was upgrading from. There's a bunch of stuff Canon should have fixed or made better, and image quality is actually inferior.

Opinion: My major motivation for selecting this particular camera was the 28mm (35mm equivalent focal length lens), the ability to shoot in raw mode and the compact camera size. I spent the weekend getting familiar with the camera and saved a few "Father's Day" snaps. The 8x10 output looks excellent at 100% and the cropped and printed 4x6's were very good. The chromatic aberrations are well controlled and lens sharpness is adequate across the range. There is a loss of corner sharpness at all zoom settings and there is evident barrel distortion at 28mm. However, these characteristics can be said about most zoom lenses and for me in no way detract for the camera's usefulness.

This camera is to supplement a rather large film inventory, and the glossy print results indicate that not much will be lost in non-critical work at ISO<=200. Noise is very evident at ISO400.

There are a couple of things I wish were different and not have been satisfactory to me if this were my only camera (e.g. plastic and non-center tripod socket, no external flash capability, only a single custom mode). However, for it's intended purpose; a carry anywhere, digital, wide zoom range with good low-light assist (at reasonable distances), independently controlled flash output exposure (but not hot shoe or external sync), RAW mode, and single custom mode, this will do the job for me for quite a while.
I find the exposure programming in "P" mode a bit perplexing, it seems to have a strong f2.8 (e.g. wide open) bias and the aperture doesn’t begin to shift until the shutter speed reaches 1/1000 second. I would think that at a 28mm focal length setting, the programming would be a bit more aperture aware. It is also not evident to me at what light levels the "auto ISO" advances to the next higher value. The manual is not detailed on the “P”-mode and auto-ISO programming.

I am currently using Av mode set with my preferred "aperture" and other settings. Most of the current usage-settings (those set by the FUNC key) are remembered for each mode when you move from mode-to-mode (e.g. P, Tv, Av and M). FUNC key sets (exposure compensation, auto white-balance settings, drive modes including self-timer, ISO selection, picture effect (i.e. contrast, b&w, sepia, etc.), bracket (exposure, WB), flash compensation (wow!) and resolution setting (including RAW).

Not all manual (FUNC) settings are available in the scene modes (makes sense, since some of those modes preferentially control some of these parameters).

The multi-zone autofocusing focusing is available only in "Auto". However, like all small sensor digitals the DOF is so “deep” that multi-zone focusing seems a bit of over kill. Single zone autofocusing is the standard in other settings and the zone is user selectable (albiet cumbersome to do so.)

I have “programmed” the custom mode set to emulate a snapshot mode. In this setting, the lens is manually focused at near a hyperfocal setting in order to eliminate as much delay as possible - this is for street work.

You can also force exposure lock and flash-exposure lock rather cleverly so that you can meter and then recompose shots. This is the first time I’ve seen the flash-exposure lock function implemented.

I'm going to like using this camera, I find most of the settings convenient. I'm a very experienced photographer although this is my first digital camera. It took me about five minutes to take my first pictures and couple of hours to explore the manual and all the other functions.

I forgot to mention earlier that one of the playback functions has a histogram feature. It's excellent. I just wish manufactures would provide a way for you to load the review pic's settings (including modes) so you could bump them for fine tuning.